Now that I sent the tables of the trends in knighting in Amtgard to Randall, I feel more comfortable writing the article I wanted to write before, even if we're all tired of it. But now is the only time that information has been really complete. So let’s revisit the situation.

Total for the calandar year of 2002: 10. Total Serpent belts in 2002: 7

No matter how you cut the cake, the number is not thirteen in one year, but it does get close.

And because it comes up a lot, those knighted in December 2001: Omnique Serpent Oriana Serpent Eclipse Crown Because last November we were drawing the year in a different place… Subtract the 2 in Dec of 2002 and add the 3 in Dec of 2001: 11. Total Serpent belts: 8.

Are Emerald Hills Serpent belts the greatest number of a particular belt awarded by a kingdom in one year?

If you take the calendar year of 2002 (7), no. If you take Dec 2001-Nov 2002 (8), it ties for 1st with CK flame belts in 1998. So the answer is potentially yes if you cut it in a way that’s kind of unfair to EH.

(An interesting note, the most Crown belts awarded by a kingdom in a year is 4 in BL 1992)

Is 7 the most Serpent belts ever awarded by a kingdom in one year?

Yes, easily.

7 EH 2002 5 WL 2000 4 BL 1994/CK 1994/CK 1999

And 7 is more than the rest of Amtgard combined (5) for Serpent belts in 2002. Strangely, it didn’t put 2002 outside the norm for Serpent belts/kingdom/year. It’s been very close to 1 for the last 3 years.

Has Emerald Hills knighted the most people in one year?

No. No matter how you look at it. The most is 15 by CK in 1995. 10 in one year is 6th place.

No again. EH (1.4) is still behind CK (1.8) and WL (1.7). There is a sharp drop after EH though to 1.13 (GV). This particular orgy of Serpent belts is anomalous to EH. Although it hasn’t been discussed at all lately, EH does lead Amtgard in awarding the most Sword belts/year (1.1) followed pretty closely by IM (1.0).

I guess what I’m saying is it was kind of crazy, like it rates with some of the more crazy knighting situations in Amtgard. It would have been better to spread it out, then I doubt we would have come up on the radar of Amtgard this way. I believe we’ve done a disservice to the people who were knighted this year, but I believe their talent will keep them from further censure when this all dies down. But people, have some perspective. CK and WL still produce more serpent belts than we do.